About Me

A 50-something who's tried to sustain an interest in history, since my degree, by painting, collecting and occassionally wargaming with model figures. My primary interest has always been ancients & medieval; but I've also managed to amass some WW2 (20mm) and AWI collections too.

Friday, 12 June 2009

The famed English longbowmen, who have their place in historical posterity for their successes over the French in the key battles of the Hundred Years War. These are the first completed & based figures, Perrys as usual, painted by the talented Jim Bowen (couple of mine sneaked in - they're the ones that don't have the fine flowing paintwork!), who has an amazing skill in his use of the colour palette, as well as creating some beautiful, convincing facial details.

I've based the defensive stakes on 50mm wide bases, to be used seperately on the gaming table. My current plan is for a total of 24 longbow bases, based on a 3:1 ratio with the men at arms; the Normandy conquest being the last period before the 'bows-to-bills' ration started to climb significantly.

The first completed French men at arms, 8 bases. Wanted to try and achieve sense of some movement with these figures as they advance in chaotic manner towards the English, under arrow fire on the verge of making contact for melee.

The figures are a mix of dismounted knights with their retainers, alongside some professional soldiers raised for the campaigns. The heraldry on the knights has been researched as pertinet to the Henrician campaigns in Normandy and northern France following Agincourt and I'll add a note to the underside of each base re the actual figures portrayed. Total of 24 bases planned and next figures for basing-up are underway.

All figures are Perrys - with a couple of older Citadels sneaked in - flags are GMB (have used the smaller version of the 2 per sheet from GMB for the dismounted figures and larger will be for mounted figures or command vignettes) and arrows chez moi.